The Perfect Tire Case – There Is No Such Thing

As Miami trial lawyers, who handle a significant number of tire cases, we have been asked to consider what constitutes a perfect tire case. Upon reflection, we believe that such a case is akin to a unicorn, a mythical beast.

The perfect tire case in our view would go something like this: A consumer purchases a brand new vehicle, and upon riding out of the car dealership’s lot, one of the tires suffers a tread separation, which results in an accident causing injury. This event is captured on the dealership’s surveillance video and becomes exhibit #1 at trial.

Unfortunately, that is not the way defective tire cases unravel, literally or figuratively. A tread separation which arises out of a manufacturing or design defect is like a cancer which takes many miles and revolutions of the tire to manifest itself.

These events are almost never captured on video tape and have to be reconstructed by accident reconstruction experts. Furthermore, the many miles required to be traveled before these events typically occur allow for the tire manufacturers to attempt to deflect liability to other roadway events that may have occurred during these miles of usage.

Accordingly, tire attorneys who handle these cases in Miami and throughout Florida are confronted with a litany of defenses, including the usual suspects:

• Some other roadway hazard or event caused the tire tread separation;
• The driver did not properly inflate the tires over a period of time and this contributed to the tread separation event; and The driver did not respond properly and contributed to the vehicle losing control.

Unlike other types of cases, such as a rear-end automobile accident case, tire defect cases are almost always challenged by a laundry list of defenses, including those cited above. Despite the fact that we have tried and settled over 100 tire defect cases, we have never had the experience of a tire manufacturer admitting, in one of our cases, that they made a defective tire.

If a victim drove out of a car dealership’s lot with a brand new vehicle and brand new tires, and a tire disintegrated and it was all captured on video, perhaps that would engender an admission of liability, but it would not surprise us, if even under those circumstances, a tire manufacturer came up with some creative theory to contest liability.

At Halpern, Santos & Pinkert, P.A., our Miami personal injury attorneys pride ourselves in anticipating and outmaneuvering tire manufacturers who assert unsupportable defenses in tire defect claims that result in significant injuries.